The Real Deal

I was out walking one morning with my teenage daughter and we were talking about how food companies have shrunken their products. Things like Twinkies are smaller than they used to be and they don't taste as good as they once did because they're full of chemicals. My daughter commented that many things just aren't the real deal anymore and as we talked how we noticed the shrinking of food products, how everything is smaller than it used to be and not as good.

My daughter said you know that's kind of like the gospel it's been shortened to God loves you just accept Jesus and you will go to heaven and it's not the real deal either. There's more to the gospel than that and as I thought about her words I realized the truth in them and we live in a day friends where we are given the artificial rather than the real and this is true in many of our churches today who present a shrunken God and a diluted gospel. They just don't give you the real deal anymore.

They don't preach the real truth so you can be really saved. That's why we have so many persons in our churches who claim to be Christians but their lives were never changed. They were never awakened to their lost condition, never convicted of sin by the spirit and never born again through the supernatural act of regeneration upon the heart.

All they ever heard was a easy belief gospel that never showed them their duty of repentance and the absolute necessity of regeneration. They just took this Jesus that was offered to them. They casually took him and they just swapped their chewing gum from one side of their jaw to another and they chew on this Jesus that was offered to them.

They chew on him for a little while until the flavor goes out and they eventually spit him out and go back into the world because they never saw any need for him in the first place. They never once heard the full counsel of God preached in their ears. They just heard the short and modern gospel which is God loves you, just accept Jesus and you will go to heaven but they never heard the real deal nor were they really saved from their sins.

And that's the title of my message this afternoon friends, The Real Deal and my text is found in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and in this passage we find the apostle Paul declaring what the real gospel is. You can turn in your bibles there now this passage is rich with truth and it is the real deal friends because it speaks of a real savior in the person of Jesus Christ. We will be in verses 10 through 21 and I want us to listen carefully to what the real gospel is as found in this passage of scripture.

Here now is the word of God may the spirit of God attend the reading of his holy word for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men but we are made manifest unto God and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences for we commend not ourselves again unto you but give you occasion to glory on our behalf that ye may have someone to answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart for whether we be beside ourselves it is to God or whether we be sober it is for your cause for the love of Christ constraineth us because we disjudge that if one died for all then we're all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again wherefore henceforth and though we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth now we him no more therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature all things are passed away behold all things are new and all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ dead be ye reconciled to God for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him now friends there are several aspects to the striking passage that i wish to bring before us this afternoon in this passage we see how the apostle Paul declares the full counsel of God by warning his hearers of a common judgment for all mankind because God must punish sin he says knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade man Paul preached that God was an offended sovereign and man was a guilty rebel because of sin that man needed to be reconciled back to God because man and God had become separated through sin God was holy and there had to be a means of reconciliation back to this offended God and that means was the sin bearer in the person of Jesus Christ who died for sin justice must be satisfied the sentence of the law must be carried out imperfect man cannot stand up against the perfect law of God and pass that test God demands perfection to get into his heaven and no man is perfect all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God a man desperately needs a sin substitute in the person of Jesus Christ because a sinful man that cannot stand in his own merits against God's strict and severe law a man is a lawbreaker a guilty rebel who has sinned against the sovereign king and he must appear before the judgment seat of Christ and have his life reviewed whether it be good or bad but even man's best act is still not good enough to pass the acid test of God's requirement of upholding his holy law a sinner must stand in the merits of Jesus Christ who is the blood sacrifice for sin my sins are washed in his blood if they are not and I die in my sins I will surely go to hell and so will you friend I so will you now that's the real gospel and there are three aspects of this passage I would like to share with us today in how it relates to our modern gospel which is not the real deal friends the first shortening of our gospel occurred when we shrunk God down to our size and placed him on our level we have placed God on a human level of understanding today our God would never punish sin our God is just a friendly kind God of love he would never send anyone to hell our gospel has removed all the teeth out of the gospel removed all its terrors and threatenings and warnings there's no need for repentance to have salvation it's only a only believed gospel and if you swallow that watered down version of the modern gospel and do not repent you will surely go to hell Jesus declared unless you repent you shall all likewise perish the first sermon Jesus ever preached friends was repent and his last words to the churches in the book of revelation was to repent but sadly you won't get the real deal in our churches today friends because most pastors will not preach a hard message that would risk offending someone so they give you a shortened version of the gospel I call it a perverted version of the gospel and it's diluted of all saving power the modern gospel today couldn't save a flea much less a in for help church member who refuses to repent and turn from his sins but preachers of old used to preach differently they used to break up the fallow ground of the heart by preaching the law so the holy spirit could work and bring conviction to sin let me share with you how Charles Fanny described it Charles Fanny used to use the example of the old grist mill that operated by the force of water upon two millstones there was the top stone and the bottom stone and these two millstones are laid one atop the other and as they turn they grind the wheat into flour then he said that the bottom stone was the law of god written on the heart of man which is his conscience roman 2 15 declares which showed the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another so picture in your mind friends uh these two millstones the bottom stone is the law of god written on the witch which is man's conscience and the top stone is the preach law of god uh thundered about the ears of the hearer and when this occurs then the holy spirit can operate but by grinding upon the heart in conviction of sin how many today have you heard of saying what must i do to be saved no one's tugging on our coat sleeves anymore asking us how to find the way to christ they're just not convicted of sin you see friends the real gospel will bring you to the place where you realize you were lost you will be awakened to your lost condition apart from god you will be convicted of sin by the spirit of god you will feel your need for god your need of a remedy for sin in the person of jesus christ the main problem with our shortened version of the gospel presentation in your day and mine is the fact that people are offered a remedy for sin before they even realize they are sick and in need of a remedy so they casually accept this jesus through a decision of the intellect but their heart is still unchanged unregenerate because they never had the fallow ground of their heart broken up with the law of god and the spirit of god so they could see their sins and realize how lost they really are see what great danger they stand in and what a false foundation they rest upon but the real gospel will warn men of their great danger of dying in their sins and make room for the holy spirit to operate upon the heart through conviction of sin now friends how are you going to achieve that great work of divine operation by just saying god loves you just accept jesus and you will go to heaven all that does is harden a person's heart to receive the real jesus who is the remedy for sin but the real gospel will show you you're lost and ruined condition and warn you of your great danger of dying in your sins and being cast into a place of eternal misery called hell and the real gospel will show you what a law-breaking rebel you really are and how your sins are against a sovereign who must punish sin because the sentencing of the law must be carried out divine justice must be satisfied the real gospel will speak of the pearl of great price our substitute for sin in the person of the lord jesus christ who suffered and died on an ignoble and scandalous cross and who rose again and ascended to heaven and who now sits at the right hand of the father and he earned that right by way of a bloody cross because of sin but the artificial gospel won't tell you any of that you see the difference don't you i hope you do the real deal is jesus christ and he has this to say i am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me